When living something isn't enough

posted by Paul Simpson | 62sc
June 02, 2013

As long as Facebook remains the king of social networks (come on Google+, you can do better...) there will be a debate about the value of all those 'likes' and whether or not they mean anything: in shorthand, the Clicktivist vs. Slacktivist debate.

You will be happy to hear that I am not going to try to end the argument here (why stop a great debate like this anyway?), but instead highlight a great campaign that has advanced a creative way to drive donations.

UNICEF Sweden used the advert below to confront people with the hard truth as they see it:

Powerful stuff that can certainly be seen as a bit of a dig at those whose activism stops at clicks. But is that an issue?

As I said at the start, I am not going to try and end this debate here. I will, however, leave the last word in this post to Zeynep Tufekci (a sociology professor and fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society), who wrote in her blog last year:

"What is commonly called slacktivism is not at all about "slacking activists;" rather it is about non-activists taking symbolic action--often in spheres traditionally engaged only by activists or professionals (governments, NGOs, international institutions.). Since these so-called "slacktivists" were never activists to begin with, they are not in dereliction of their activist duties. On the contrary, they are acting, symbolically and in a small way, in a sphere that has traditionally been closed off to "the masses" in any meaningful fashion."